The current invention relates to a composition, and a process for its use, which comprises specific castor polyesters and anionic surfactants, which when used to clean the hair provide detergency and cleaning attributes, but surprisingly also provide the hair with gloss. The castor polyester, which is water insoluble, surprisingly can be added to the anionic surfactant, have no effect upon foam, and provide gloss to the hair when dry. The combination of these properties makes these materials very well suited to personal care applications.
It has long been the desire of personal care formulators to provide several benefits to the consumer as a result of washing the hair. The washing of the hair, first and foremost needs to provide cleansing properties. That is the shampoo needs to have detergency. Oils on the hair, soils from the environment and residuals from other treatment products, like styling gels need to be removed from the hair. Anionic surfactants selected from the group consisting of sulfates, ether sulfates and alpha olefin sulfonates have long been used in cleaning hair. The problem is that if not formulated correctly these compounds can strip the hair and leave it dry, and in a state with high levels of static. These are undesirable conditions.
Much work has been done to address the incorporation of conditioners into the product. These include the so-called two in one products that contain silicone. An example of this are it U.S. Pat. No. 4,788,006 issued November 1988 to Bolich et al. It contains silicone, a cationic quat and an anionic surfactant. These formulations do not recognize the functionality of the castor polymer and its ease of formulation in making a simple effective conditioner.
Another very desirable attribute that is desired on the hair is gloss. Hair that is clean and has a gloss is generally considered more aesthetically appealing. The problem with getting gloss is that it is generally obtained with the use of a water-insoluble oil. The oil is generally applied from a volatile solvent like cyclomethicone or isopropanol. These volatile solvents are not considered appropriate for today""s products. Specifically, they are flammable and are not considered green by today""s environmentally conscious consumer.
Attempts to include the gloss agent in the shampoo have resulted in failure. Specifically, the oil phase does not formulate into the water phase without emulsifiers. The resulting emulsion is generally white and opaque and significantly does not provide the foam or detergency in the shampoo. The oil interferes with the foam and detergency.
We have surprisingly found that incorporation between 0.1 and 5.0% of a specific castor polyester in anionic surfactants selected from the group consisting of sulfates, ether sulfates and alpha olefin sulfonates, allows for the formulation of detergent systems that provide gloss, foam and good detergency in one product. The castor polyesters useful in the practice of the current invention are outlined in U.S. Pat. No. 6,342,527 issued on Jan. 29, 2002 to O""Lenick and LaVay, assigned to Zenitech LLC, incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention has as its objective a composition that comprises a blend of anionic surfactants selected from the group consisting of sulfates, ether sulfates and alpha olefin sulfonates, and polymeric castor polyesters, which can be used in personal care compositions, like shampoos, to provide foam, detergency and gloss when applied to the hair.
Another objective of the invention is to provide a process for simultaneously cleaning and glossing hair, which comprises contacting the hair with an effective cleaning concentration of a composition which comprises a blend of anionic surfactants selected from the group consisting of sulfates, ether sulfates and alpha olefin sulfonate, and polymeric castor polyesters.
The present invention relates to a composition used to clean and provide gloss to the hair. The invention is directed to a hair composition, which comprises;
(1) anionic surfactants selected from the group consisting of sulfates, ether sulfates and alpha olefin sulfonate
and
(2) a polymeric castor polyester which conforms to the following structure;
Axe2x80x94(B)xxe2x80x94A
wherein; 
the linking group between all of the Oxe2x80x94 are succinyl groups conforming to the following structure xe2x80x94C(O)xe2x80x94CH2xe2x80x94CH2xe2x80x94C(O)xe2x80x94;
R is selected from alkyl and alkylene having 5 to 33 carbon atoms;
x is an integer ranging from 1 to 50.
The present invention is directed to a process for simultaneously cleaning and glossing hair, which comprises contacting the hair with an effective cleaning concentration of a composition which comprises a blend of anionic surfactants selected from the group consisting of sulfates, ether sulfates and alpha olefin sulfonate, and polymeric castor polyesters, conforming to the following structure:
Axe2x80x94(B)xxe2x80x94A
wherein; 
the linking group between all of the Oxe2x80x94are succinyl groups conforming to the following structure xe2x80x94C(O)xe2x80x94CH2xe2x80x94CH2xe2x80x94C(O)xe2x80x94;
R is selected from alkyl and alkylene having 5 to 33 carbon atoms;
x is an integer ranging from 1 to 50.